Since my full on whinge about bad weather over Christmas the weather has made a change for the better....to my utter relief! Some pilots don't seem to have any fear about embedded thunderstorms and mountains hiding in clouds....either I'm a pussy or they are nuts!
With all the Brits (Poms as we call them in New Zealand) escaping the cold in England for the holiday season for a African safari with a bit of sun burning on the beach in Zanzibar all of us pilots have been flying like mad. The last three days I have only been flying charters....it's a nice change to the usual schedule routes. The above picture is of Ngorongoro crater whilst enroute from Zanzibar to Seronera in the Serengeti National park. I know in the past I have posted pictures of the crater, but it never ceases to amaze me when I fly over it in clear weather. It's an ancient unflooded volcanic caldera, 2000 feet deep and is home to around 25000 large wild animals....on a half day safari you are almost guaranteed to sight the BIG 5 .
Two days ago I had a flight to Matambwe gate in the Selous game reserve. I was told before taking off out of Dar es Salaam that i must check the airstrip before landing as it may have washed out during the recent heavy rains. Well as you can see it is washed out! Though it doesn't look it from 300 feet above the ground but that trench through the middle of the airstrip is waist deep....and being situated 400 metres in from the threshold it is enough to write off any non cautious pilot in a fixed wing aircraft. As a kiwi farmers son I'd say all it needs is a culvert pipe, a tractor and a days work to fix....but I bet it will be in this state for months to come. At least the airstrip is long and still usable for us pilots in our small bug smashers (Caravans & C206s).
Company Caravan landing at Kiba in the Selous.
The two pictures here are of Lake Manyara. I took these pictures on various charters over the last few days. Today whilst approaching Lake Manyara airstrip which is perched up on the escarpment above the lake I saw a spectacle I had never seen before. At first I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at....a thick PINK line which stretched out for about a mile and it was gliding across the lake surface? Then as I got lower I realized and marveled at the THOUSANDS of Pink Flamingos flying low over the water! It was amazing to watch...sorry I never got to take a picture as i was kind of close to landing, so my hands were kind of full. Plus my little Olympus point and shoot camera wouldn't have done the spectacle justice.
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Heard about your blog and read with interest. Brought back many cool memories of working for Air Zanzibar in 1991/2. We had Trislanders and Senecas flying to many of the places you mention, incl Pempa, Mafia, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Nairobi, the Selous just too mention a few. I had the best job in the world earned US 125 a week lived in Stonetown drank in the Africa house Hotel on the balcony until 8pm when you guessed it the power was switched off. Thanks for jogging the memory. Keep enjoying the veiw, there is no veiw from 747 at 370.
ReplyDeletergds paul